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THE TALK OF THE TOWN
COMMENT
LEAR.NING BY DEGR.EES
A member of the Class of2010-
who this season dons synthetic cap
and gown, listens to the inspirational
words of David Souter (Harvard), An-
derson Cooper (Tulane), or Lisa Ku-
drow (Vassar), and collects a diploma-
need not be a statistics major to know
that the odds of stepping into a satisfy-
ing job, or, indeed, any job, are lower
now than might have been imagined
four long years ago, when the first post-
ers were hung on a dorm-room wall, and
having a .edu e-mail address was still a
novelty. Statistically speaking, however,
having an expertise in statistics may help
in getting a job: according to a survey
conducted by the National Association
of Colleges and Employers, graduates
with math skills are more likely than
their peers in other majors to find them-
selves prompdy and gainfully employed.
The safest of all degrees to be acquir-
ing this year is in accounting: forty-six
per cent of graduates in that discipline
:::: have already been offered jobs. Business
w
5 majors are similarly placed: forty-four per
cent will have barely a moment to breathe
S2 before undergoing the transformation
from student to suit. Engineers of all
g stripes-chemical, computer, electrical,
mechanical, industrial, environmental-
have also fared relatively well since the
onset of the recession: they dominate
a ranking, issued by Payscale.com, of the
disciplines that produce the best-earn-
ing graduates. Particular congratula-
tions are due to aerospace engineers,
who top the list, with a starting salary of
just under sixty thousand dollars-a
figure that, if it is not exactly strato-
spheric, is twenty-five thousand dollars
higher than the average starting salary of
a graduate in that other science of the
heavens, theology.
Economics majors aren't doing badly,
either: their starting salary averages
about fifty thousand a year, rising to a
mid-career median of a hundred and
one thousand. Special note should be
taken of the fact that if you have an eco-
nomics degree you can, eventually, make
a living proposing that other people
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shouldn't bother going to college. This,
at least, is the approach of Professor
RichardK. Vedder, of Ohio University,
who is the founder of the Center for
College Affordability and Productivity.
According to the Times, eight out of the
ten job categories that will add the most
employees during the next decade-in-
cluding home-health aide, customer-
service representative, and store clerk-
can be performed by someone without
a college degree. "Professor Vedder likes
to ask why fifteen percent of mail carri-
ers have bachelor's degrees," the paper
reported.
The argument put forth by Professor
Vedder (Ph.D ., University of Illinois ) is,
naturally, economic: of those overly
schooled mail carriers, he said, "Some
of them could have bought a house
for what they spent on their educa-
tion." Another economist, Professor
Robert I. Lerman, of American Univer-
sity(Ph.D.,M.I.T.), told the Times that
high schools, rather than readying all
students for college, should focus on the
acquisition of skills appropriate to the
workplace. According to the Times,
these include the ability to "solve prob-
lems and make decisions," "resolve
conflict and negotiate," "coöperate with
others," and "listen actively."
It may be news that the academy is
making a case for the superfluity of the
academy, but skepticism about the value
of college, and of collegians, is hardly
novel. Within the sphere of business, a
certain romance attaches to the figure of
the successful college dropout, like Steve
Jobs, who was enrolled at Reed for only
THE NEW YORKER, JUNE 7,2010
21